BSC 4 Snippet 4

 Sitrep:

So, I hit a snag with getting Goodlifeguide to format the manuscript. There is a delay, it is out of my hands. So we're looking at a mid March launch.

So, bummer.

Anyway, on to the snippet!

 

Chapter 4

 

Base

 

Brian continued moving forward with construction of the second apartment complex. The process was easier the second time around since they knew the process and logistics better. The basic floor plan was the same, but a little more complex because the architect wanted more design variation. She patiently explained to an exasperated Mitch and Brian that modern design wasn’t just visually boring—it was displeasing to the brain. “The brain needs stimulation. Your mood changes when you see something with more to it than flat gray walls.”

A lot of the changes she proposed were minor. Awning covers in some areas that also served to break up the outline, some additional paneling to the exterior, and the sandblasting of bands. Paint was on the to-do list as well.

Inside there was to be a living wall of green along with a waterfall. Those would be pretty and appealing though Henry complained about the plumbing and the potential for leaks and mold.

The building itself still had the same footprint, a four-story rectangle with the basement. It was at a slight twenty-degree angle from the first apartment and connected by a sky bridge on the third floor to the original. There were some other changes, however. Above the second floor, they went with steel and larger windows. That meant there was less concrete but more armored glass. Balconies were nixed by Phyllis as a security risk. They were also too hard to implement since they would have to be cantilevered into the structure and that might compromise the engineering. No one wanted a long delay to run simulations to see if they’d work.

The first floor went up quickly but they were stalled on the second for a bit until truss segments were shipped in from Iron Town and flown into place. Once that happened, they began to move on to the next set of walls while the floor and utilities were run.

Brian repeatedly commented that he was glad Janet and the others who had harassed him had their own apartments and were not involved. Janet ruffled his hair when she overheard him and hugged him.

>>>*<<<

Candy Summerset surveyed the vehicle lines with a mixed feeling. Vehicle orders had tapered off a bit. The bulk of the orders over the winter had been for farm and construction equipment. Several communities like Fortress wanted to field their own road crews but the expense was daunting.

She was grateful for the reprieve and slower workload though she felt like they could do more. Aircraft orders had also dropped off. They had just the one replacement Antonov on the books. They had talked about building another Hercules but that had been nixed for the time being. The focus was on the space plane at the moment.

She hoped things changed soon. She didn’t need the frantic pace from the previous year, but some variety might be nice.

They had begun building crate motors and battery packs for orders and for later use. There were also some calls for more generators and replacement parts for legacy vehicles from Earth. Her husband Bill was handling those though. There were a lot of calls for fuel-making equipment. Bill and the chemists had worked out two systems—one to filter and process the vine pods, another that could make ethanol and ethylene with power, hydrogen, and some other ingredients. There was a third variation of the second design that could output straight methane but there were few engines that could burn it properly.

>>>*<<<

Fortress

 

Carlos looked around and then down to the soil around them. They had finally filled in the holes from the giant gusano, worms as Joe called them. That had taken valuable planting time before it had been finished. But now the plants were wilting in those areas.

He checked the soil and stuck his hand in it to feel how wet it was. He felt something moving under it and thought it was just bugs and worms but then something latched onto his hand and bit hard.

He screamed and yanked his hand out and screamed at the thing attached to it. The long whip like thing thrashed in the air. Other people turned to him. He clutched at his arm and then tried to pound the thing with the pistol handle.

The thing finally let go but not before taking several of his fingers. He sobbed in pain, clutching the mangled limb to his chest as he stomped the thing. Other people arrived and stared horrified before they too tried to stomp the thing. Then more of the worms began to appear in the soil so they made a hasty retreat.

>>>*<<<

Joe reported the incident to Base as Carlos received treatment. He was concerned about infection. It was a bloody mess, and he’d kept his distance. The poor guy had lost three of his fingers and his thumb.

“The worms?” Maggie asked. When he’d mentioned a worm problem, Pete had called Maggie in first. Mitch was out on the perimeter. He could talk through his phone but was a bit distracted.

“Yeah.”

“Huh.”

“Perhaps the soft wet soil of spring allowed them to burrow? Or did these hatch from eggs?” an unfamiliar male voice interjected.

“Both are possible. Can we get a sample?” Maggie asked.

“That’s not a problem. The problem is we’ve got too many. That field is covered in them and compromised. The same for the pasture. They are on the outskirts but that is a problem.” He’d seen a chicken wander into the field and get torn apart.

There was a long silence. “So, what are you going to do?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t know but we have to do something. Diego wants to burn those fields but that won’t get into the ground.”

“Let me think about it,” the male voice said.

“Electricity,” another more familiar voice said over the radio.

“Ah …”

“This is Curt. Haven’t any of you gone fishing?” the islander asked.

“Ah, yes…?”

“Of course!” Ducky said with the sound of snapping fingers.

“Use an electric probe. A long metal rod. Stick it into the ground as deep as you can and then send an electric current through it. The worms will rise to the surface. You can then kill them,” Curt told them.

Joe nodded and hastily grabbed a pad of paper and made some notes. He suddenly felt a little better about the situation.

>>>*<<<

BSC4 Snippet 3

 Sitrep:

So, I received the manuscript back from Rea. I'm working on sending it to Goodlifeguide.

In other news, I finished the cover to J8:

 

It looks like I didn't post the Tauren Invasion cover:

 

 Tauren Invasion will be coming out in 2 months or so.

On to the snippet!

Chapter 3

 

True spring began with a series of storms. There was rain during the day but as the temperatures dropped the rain turned into a slushy snow. It turned the communities into a mess for several weeks.

Maggie had problems with the animals in the pastures getting stuck in the muck. She eventually had to restrict some of the species to the barns for a little while until the sun dried the muck up a bit. She grumbled about needing more drainage.

>>>*<<<

Mitch sipped coffee in the conservatory as he watched the sun slowly rise. He had been cuddling with Sandra until she’d been woken with a request for a radio consultation. Tucker had spent the night with a friend to give his parents some rare quality time together.

He saw shadows pass and looked up to the sky to see a flock of avians pass by. A massive shadow dived on one flock and batted some to the ground in the field nearby.

His eyes went wide as he saw a massive Pterosaur chomp one smaller avian and then peck and then rip off pieces of another it had landed on. He took his phone out and held it up to record the event.

“Don’t see that every day,” he murmured as he continued to take sips of coffee.

>>>*<<<

Phyllis had to make a regular thing for security to chase off avians. It was four or five times a day, especially around the barns, food storage, and of course the airport. “You can tell it is winter when they return and begin to shit everywhere and cause havoc,” Phyllis complained as she came into the great room after washing up.

Anne nodded. The ground animals had a tighter poop. Some of the avians had a wet poop almost diarrhea, a common problem in waterfowl like ducks. They sprayed it everywhere, including on the buildings and if possible, on the unwary. Lisa was constantly complaining about having to clean equipment and vehicles. The poop was nasty, it ate into paint fast.

It wasn’t very pleasant for the unwary either. Four people had been splattered by poop from the air. One had gotten an infection from the nasty stuff. One of Brian’s construction crew had been driven off from an area by a pair of birds that had been spraying poop and dive bombing.

It had turned out they had set up a nest in a nook. The decision had been made to leave them until the nest was clear and then seal up the nook to prevent a repeat.

Brian’s team were working with the plastics team to produce spikes that were placed on any surface the avians wanted to occupy. The avians hated them and avoided them.

“You heard about the blockage at the apartment?”

Phyllis blinked. “Ah… no?”

“Air vent to the plumbing. A couple of critters got up under the cap, chewed their way through the wire mesh and then into the pipe. They found an elbow and created a nest. Miguel and Henry were called in when the plumbing in that section started to act up. It took them a while to find the nest and clear it.”

“Oh. Lovely.”

“Yeah. They are persistent,” Anne sighed. Phyllis nodded.

>>>*<<<

As soon as the ground warmed and the spring rains passed the convoys were out running. They had started runs during the later stage of winter when the roads were clear. Paul had each of the 3 convoys keep a snow plow on the lead vehicle and at least 1 cow catcher.

Ignacio did the same in the south though the roads were not as well built there. They were limited to runs to Prairie and East for the time being.

Sam showed up at Base during the second week of spring after the equinox. Jack had wanted him to stick around Copper Town until after the planting but he had refused. They had cleaned up the road to the mill and to the mine but then kicked off to get busy elsewhere to get ahead of the migrations.

Sam’s crew worked on the road to Base for a week and finished setting up the bridges. They had learned to pull the bridges before winter in order to prevent them from being washed out by the spring flooding.

The ribbon bridges were kept on high ground near the bridge site during the long winter. Only minor repairs had to be made to the footings at each crossing before the pieces were put back in place. Sam's crew passed Gary on the way to Copper Town on his first run. They finished up the cleanup of the road and then moved on the roads north.

Sam was determined to concrete the road to Iron Town and work on the roads beyond that year. Mike had offered him a bonus if he could do it. Mike wanted to be able to travel the road year round, including during the winter to Base, something about ice road trucking.

In order to pull it off they needed a lot of concrete and gravel however. He needed to sit down and talk to Brian and Mitch about that. He was aware that there was a lot of competition for both for the construction projects at the base.

>>>*<<<

BSC 4 Snippet 2

 Sitrep:

So, still sorting things out with Rea.

  I am struggling with the J8 cover, I've had 2 false starts so far. Unusual for me, I've only had that problem twice.

  In other news I'm pretty irate over my phone disabling my MP3 player. I admit, I'm a bit of a Luddite so I don't like streaming on my phone. I text, make calls, take pictures, and play my music. Oh, and use the calculator and notepad. That is IT. No games, no movies, no streaming. No Google store. (which still uses gigs of data a month for some reason even though I don't have it linked to my Google account or drive.) 

  The great Google gods disabled the music player this morning and the phone says I "have to delete my MP3s and sign up for Youtube music streaming," and oh, pay if I want it ad free.

  I don't stream. Period. Why would I stream something I have on the damn device? I just need it to exercise with. Ten songs, that is it. GRR. Besides, to stream I have to increase my bandwidth which means my phone bill will triple in price. PASS.

  I'm looking into downloading an alternative FREE app now. Either that or buying a cheap MP3 player. I hate corporate crap like that. Why can't people leave shit well enough alone? "Adapt, change is good." Yeah, in some circumstances I get that, but I'm also a firm believer in:

 "IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T "FIX" IT!!!"

 GRR.

 Let's squeeze as much money out as we can! GRR. $5.99 a month, $13.99 a month... grrr...

Rant over.

Anyway, here is the snippet:

 

Chapter 2

 

Jacklynn was grateful that Akira finally installed the new rotors for the Skycrane. The bird wasn’t used often but she hated having it down for any length of time.

The process of making the new rotors had gotten Akira and Candy to make a couple of spares. Each had been carefully balanced. They had also made a run of spare components, all common parts. She was pretty certain it was with an eye to making another helicopter in the future.

At the moment there weren’t many calls for helicopters or air cars. They were short ranged birds and had limited utility. A drone could fill the surveillance role easily without risking a large craft and a precious pilot.

The only real call for a helicopter was as an air ambulance. She hoped they would look into that soon but with so many other projects going on, she doubted it.

>>>*<<<

Mitch took a tour of the school section within the base. It had been expanded after the first exodus to the first apartment complex. The hallway was lined with posters and pictures that the kids had made.

He looked in a window in a door and smiled as he saw his son. Tucker was chronologically 5 Terran years but hit all the marks for an 11 year old. He was enjoying school and seemed to suck it up like a sponge. He also looked more and more like Mitch. It was a little spooky to some people. He tried to think of his son as just that his son, though he had most of the same genetic package.

Most in that he was 99 percent Mitch’s genetic package but the memes had added something to make him grow faster than normal and some giant cell in his reproductive system to manage that. They knew that the one in women intercepted sperm and then created the clones. They were not so certain about what the one in the males did however.

It was just one more question for the scientists to solve. He returned his attention to the school, watching the kids as they did a math lesson. His son looked in his direction and he waved before moving on. He didn’t want to distract or embarrass the kid.

Kathy had restructured the school system. The kids learned the basics, reading, writing, math, health, first aid, and science, but along with them computer skills, animal identification and avoidance, art, music, and history. History was more of a general history of the world as well as the history of their present world.

She loved to put in new discoveries during science time.

Geography class was limited to the basics about what hills and mountains were, continents, and so on. Mitch remembered having to memorize every state, every capital, then countries, capitals, and major cities around the world. It had been tedious. The syllabus was more focused on their present world. The other 11 continents were mentioned but the geography lesson was focused on their continent and communities.

He envied Tucker and the kids. They just had to memorize 23 communities.

He also envied them for not having to get into specifics on some subjects. A lot of the knowledge they had to memorize when he had been a kid was redundant. Who needed to know the name and location of every river in the world? Knowledge was easily accessible on the net. Kathy was focusing on teaching the kids to access that knowledge and think for themselves.

“They are growing up so fast,” Josie murmured, nodding her chin the classrooms.

Too fast,” Mitch murmured. He felt a bit of resentment over his son and the other kids losing their childhood and being forced to grow up so fast. He hoped they didn’t age too fast later in life. Cassie and the other doctors were supposed to be looking into it sometime soon.

Josie nodded.

“Are you considering having a kid soon?”

She grimaced. “I’ve got to find a guy first,” she said with an eye roll. “You lot like to get killed off here or snagged.”

He snorted. She was one of the former long term patients that had been in hospice care. She had been a part of Chief Robert’s drop and community. She and others like Mary and Charlie had been badly chewed up by the shark hounds during their run to Copper Town.

She’d spent years getting her wound packed and her body hooked up to machines until Cassie had intervened. Cassie’s determination to not just accept things as they were but to redress them had awakened many to the possibilities of the new world. She had learned cutting edge regenerative medicine with the hopes of helping her own rebuilding but also her friends.

Josie was a case in point. She’d lost a good chunk of her torso from a bite. There had been too much to replace so the wound had been open. It had been gruesome. Sandra had tried to do something about it but had failed.

Cassie however had worked with Ducky to essentially industrialize regenerative medicine. They had cultured stem cells in vast quantities from each patient, and then grown what was needed to rebuild them.

Once she was on her feet Josie had stepped up her work with the school and college.

“Well, if you can’t find someone and still want a kid there is always the frozen popsicles. And Cassie has made it so you can choose if you want to have a clone or a normal kid or even carry an independent fetus to term,” he said.

She nodded. “I dunno. I’m thinking about it,” she said. He nodded. “I just got my life back you know? I may take a year or so to really get my feet under me.”

“No pressure,” he assured her with a smile. “Sorry if I sounded like I was.”

“What about you?”

He snorted. “Sandra is about to go walk about again.” She nodded. Everyone knew about the upcoming launch of Mercy Flight II in the late spring. “I doubt she’d want to travel pregnant and morning sick.”

Josie made a disgusted face at the idea and nodded again.

“Still,” he turned back to Tucker’s classroom. “It would be nice to give Tucker another sibling before he’s too old to appreciate it. Not that he doesn’t love Cassie and vice versa.”

She smiled softly.

“Anyway, any problems?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Just a question about the school and college. Are they going to be constructed this year?”

He nodded. “That’s the plan. But plans change and I understand that Brian has been ‘convinced’ to build the next apartment complex early.”

“Convinced?” she asked as she wrinkled her nose at him.

He snorted. “Let’s just say the 2 ladies he’s with did the convincing.”

Josie blinked and then chuckled.

“Granted having a kid with them in that small apartment suite probably pushed things further along,” he said as he cocked his head. Josie nodded. Caroline was growing like a weed. She definitely had lungs though; Mitch had heard her bawl several times when she’d been teething.

Gina passed them and waved her new hand. Josie grinned. ‘Still breaking it in?”

Gina nodded. She did her best to wiggle her fingers. They moved though slowly. “It’s a work in progress.”

“Keep on it. The more you move it the more you’ll get used to it,” Josie said.

“Oh I know. Agnes gave me homework to do while she was back home. I’ve been doing it as much as I can,” Gina said. She pulled a little red heart out and made a show of squeezing it. “See?”

Josie nodded.

“I don’t think you are up for arm wrestling just yet but eventually,” Mitch quipped. Gina snorted.

“I’ll settle for texting and typing,” Gina said. “And being able to shoot,” she said as she indicated the pistol in the holster on her hip.

“I thought you learned to use your other hand?” Mitch asked.

“I did. But the chief wants me to use both. Phyllis too,” Gina replied. Mitch nodded as Josie crossed her arms. “Are we going to build an indoor range sometime in the near future?” Gina asked.

Mitch smirked. “Why? Don’t like going out in the cold?”

Gina leveled a look on him. “Damn straight!”

He chuckled. “Well, we could set up something. Maybe in that cavern you lost the original hand in… think we could have centipedes to target practice with?”

She shuddered. “Don’t even go there. Though I’d love to blast some of the bastards into goo,” she growled. “Arby set up a video game for me to do that last year. It was good therapy.”

Mitch blinked and then nodded. “Well, I hope you never have to face that situation again. But hopefully if you are in it you will survive it.”

“That’s the plan,” Gina said dryly as she waved her new hand again and then took herself off.

Josie nodded politely to him and then went back to the office. Mitch nodded back and then went back to doing his rounds.

>>>*<<<

BSC 4 Snippet 1

 Sitrep:

So, I just finished Jethro 8, At the Crossroads Tuesday. It is in the hands of the first Betas. If any other Beta wants it, let me know. :)

 Speaking of crossroads, I was trying to decide on which book to send to Rea next. BSC 4 or Tauren Invasion. I finally settled on BSC4 a moment ago. She has the manuscript now.

So, I get to work on the cover to J8 and ulp, my taxes. 😅

Chapter 1

 

Base

 

Winter had socked the continent with a couple extra weeks of snow, making everyone weary of the white and ready for spring. Everyone seemed like they were champing at the bit to get moving. There had been no reports of famine and no deaths. There had been a handful of frostbite and pneumonia cases but they had been treated.

The distribution of medical supplies had helped immensely. So had the good harvests during the warm months of the year, and the trade for warm winter clothing.

Mitch Chambers looked at the list he had and sighed softly. There were still a few long term things on it he was keeping tabs on. He saw movement behind him and glanced at the meme bobbing like a jellyfish nightlight. He snorted and went back to his ruminating.

Jacklynn had reluctantly recovered Ciara and Tariq from their island of exile. The fact that the 2 ladies had survived when the men had not spoke about their survival skills and stubbornness. That had sparked a problem though; both the Fortress and Tropics had not wanted them to return to their communities.

Joe had been concerned that Ciara would challenge him over time, and would eventually fall into bad habits and become a bad influence to his community. Neal had said something along the same lines. The 2 ladies had eventually been offered a place in the East Europe and Russian communities. Sydney and the 2 children had gone with Ciara to live in New Siberia. Jake had remained behind in the Fortress to remain in the home that had been built for the family.

He shook his head. By all reports the ladies were quiet and keeping their heads down. Tariq had settled into the East European community and worked on any task they gave her without complaint. Ciara was much the same. Both ladies had put on some weight over the winter.

His mind turned to home. Cassie had survived her pregnancy and the birth of her son. His wife had been furious over her daughter’s actions and she’d taken steps with Brian to lock down the reproductive lab to prevent a repeat. Not that Cassie seemed eager to have another baby anytime soon.

Jack had lost half a dozen people to Base last year and was not happy at hemorrhaging people. Not that he’d put their skills to use. The Fuentes were happy in the zoo and Jessica Walker was having a ball at the Base. They did talk with their old community and friends regularly. Jessica had said she was more than willing to consult on architectural buildings if Jack ever got off the stick and moved forward on a project.

For the moment the young woman was driving Brian up a tree about various projects and making eyes at visiting the Han Village and maybe others as well.

Jack was not happy about Mussad making eyes at Ishtar. The quiet Islamic woman was his only teacher and damn good at her job. But she was lonely and she was interested in visiting the Middle Eastern Village. So far Jack had refused to countersign her leaving.

He had stopped short of saying he’d keep her. He’d just refused to fly her out on one of his community’s planes. Mitch shook his head. He knew that denial was a bad thing. Denying the lady what she wanted bred resentment and anger over time. Letting her go for a visit or hell, to stay would be better. He’d heard a few stories about the middle eastern village. It was definitely not a western lady’s cup of tea. She might or might not want to settle there. It all depended on how religious she was and how determined she was to be with her own culture.

He didn’t know the lady and it wasn’t his problem so he shrugged such concerns aside.

Jolie had started a help wanted page when some communities had asked for one skilled person or another. That had sparked some interest from the kids in school at the base. But when they looked into the communities and their amenities they hadn’t been impressed enough to want to go there. That might or might not change in time.

>>>*<<<

Jessica Walker walked around the base and then back to her office. It was cramped and small, but it was hers. It was also better than the little cubby she’d had in Copper Town.

She sniffed.

Things were so much different at Base than at Copper Town. She’d heard about it but hadn’t taken the plunge until she’d heard about the apartment complex. She’d listened to Jack and Hera promise soothingly that they’d do more at Copper but when they hadn’t followed through she’d finally pulled the trigger.

She had no regrets. None.

She wanted to make more advanced buildings and use her skills to make her mark. They had consulted her over the years, but now she was hands on. She had even proposed a few changes to make things look better and less dull. She had proposed a few other buildings too. She really wanted to make her mark on things and not just build another damn tavern.

At the moment she was researching the Seattle Library. The building had been built with all sorts of innovations like a micro sunshade. Layers of glass and then an aluminum mesh and then air and more glass made up a glass wall. The mesh was so fine it looked transparent. But angles are made so it blocked the afternoon sun and keeps the room from becoming a greenhouse during the summer.

That was fine, but she wasn’t so certain about how that would help in winter. Winters were cold in Seattle though, so they had to have done something.

So far she had been trying to model the system with her computer. She had a desktop, they promised her access to the servers in time but for the moment they were being used for the space program. She didn’t begrudge it.

It would be nice though to have additional computer support though.

The micro shade was just one project. She was also looking into an articulating roof structure for the college, something that would open and close like a Venus fly trap. That idea had come from a college building in Florida.

She had all sorts of ideas to explore. Living walls, maybe something from Singapore… and of course ways to put her own personal stamp on things.

And Base was just one community. She had picked up feelers from other communities like Fortress, the Europeans, and Crash town. Even Bottom’s Up had inquired about her skills. She smiled to herself. Eventually she’d be famous and have her own suite in her own personally designed mansion.

Her computer blinked and said it was finished. She glanced at it and then settled in to check the results, daydreams of the future forgotten for the moment.

>>>*<<<